[ANN][BLC] Blakecoin Blake-256 for GPU/FPGA With Merged Mined Pools Stable Net

[kramble]

I now have a ztex bitstream that loads on all four devices https://www.dropbox.com/s/vk3k5sb64b8641o/ztex_ufm1_15y1-v06ad-2core-ucf-140MHz-fmax-147-fixed.bit

It turns out to have been a missing bitgen parameter after all. It was documented clearly at http://wiki.ztex.de/doku.php?id=en:ztex_boards:ztex_fpga_boards:porting_to_1_15y (which took a bit of finding)

Unused I/O's that are connected to FX2 outputs must float. This also includes I2C signals. It is recommended to let all unused I/O's float.

And a bit more research to find out exactly how to implement this ...
-g UnusedPin:Pullnone

I also added this as I found it in an .xise settings file from an earlier version ...
-g ConfigRate:26

[trepex]

I now have a ztex bitstream that loads on all four devices https://www.dropbox.com/s/vk3k5sb64b8641o/ztex_ufm1_15y1-v06ad-2core-ucf-140MHz-fmax-147-fixed.bit

Works perfectly on my setup at 2x raspberry-pi:

3x Ztex 1.15y (original, manual max clock 196Mhz to avoid HW errs and increase stability): 4.580Gh/s
1x Ztex 1.15y (Asia clone with cooling problems, running at max clock 168Mhz): 1.2Gh/s

One r-pi can't handle 4 boards or at least not this combination.

Thanks for the good work!!!

[wax7]

to use it i need the mod cgminer version?
Wath usb drive you are using, having last night some trouble to get it running on my new (old) PC. usblib0 driver finds it but doesnt flash the bitstream.... using winusb and bfgminer finds it but doesn't use it... *g*

how does the running command look at you? cgminer.exe -o bla -p bla -s auto -blake  ......?

Thanks to answer my maybe stupid questions

[kramble]

to use it i need the mod cgminer version?
Wath usb drive you are using, having last night some trouble to get it running on my new (old) PC. usblib0 driver finds it but doesnt flash the bitstream.... using winusb and bfgminer finds it but doesn't use it... *g*

how does the running command look at you? cgminer.exe -o bla -p bla -s auto -blake  ......?

Thanks to answer my maybe stupid questions

Questions are fine, it just shows up the gaps in my instructions. I'll update the original announcement at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306894.msg3559938#msg3559938 to make it a bit clearer, but for now for windows you need ...

If you've not already done so, download zadig_v2.0.1.160.7z from http://sourceforge.net/projects/libwdi/files/zadig/
You'll need 7zip to unzip it http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Plug in the ztex board, if its not been used before windows will fail to install the driver, so run zadig
Device ID 221A-0100 "Unknown device #1", edit to "ZTEX Module" and install default WinUSB
If it has been installed before with the default ztex driver, you still need to run zadig and install WinUSB (I'm not quite sure about this step as I've not done it since I've run cgminer from the outset, but it is required).

Download the official cgminer 3.1.1 sources from https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer/archive/v3.1.1.zip and unzip it.
You just need the bitstreams folder, but the sources are useful should you want to compile it.

Download my dependancies from https://www.dropbox.com/s/xa01f9hhakpsexv/cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga.zip and unzip it.
Now copy the bitstreams folder from the official version to my version as cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga\bitstreams

Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/ak7jqi0mnd4j1zp/cgminer.exe and put it in the cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga folder.
This link will change if I release new versions, best to check the README at https://github.com/kramble/FPGA-Blakecoin-Miner/tree/master/cgminer/cgminer-3.1.1

Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/vk3k5sb64b8641o/ztex_ufm1_15y1-v06ad-2core-ucf-140MHz-fmax-147-fixed.bit
Rename this to ztex_ufm1_15y1.bit and copy it into cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga\bitstreams overwriting the original version.

Edit cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga\runblake.bat and set the username:password to be the same as the rpcuser and rpcpassword you set in blakecoin.conf. If your blaconind/blakecoin-qt is running on a different computer then change localhost too.

Now just run runblake.bat (either double click it, or run it from a command prompt). It will write to log.txt which you can open in notepad or other editor to review the messages.

Good Luck.

[mogrith]

Do others get a lot of orphan blocks?
 Both on GPU and now on FPGA I seem to generate as many orphans as good blocks

Code:

"false","2013-11-19T10:04:04","Mined","","BpjkZnsiYovkHU1eDnupEy9QMneobxjNCT","25.00155392","c142f7ca43a87d54c9bdeeb39418200a7787eb1f07911ea11c68b624c3b6ceb8-000"
"false","2013-11-19T06:05:30","Mined","","BfZNoibZ6WuH5AcLdriwbMZkNQS8SBYDnA","25.00155389","e295e8b9fd518c1f67f05722e11ed6256f4d89a41467e0db8186ded91f9a7377-000"
"false","2013-11-18T23:05:39","Mined","","BjxL5SVg7NsaTjmMQdyeFneAPhoPS5Y2ZU","25.00155386","66cc6a41684514a9449428fdc3a956623c72cdfe23a77d3072dbaef2203f2e5e-000"
"false","2013-11-18T21:48:02","Mined","","Bk2wVXkDSYScPqpbV2jd3ZzBJ4kxJwPPNr","25.00155383","81704736744766eb277b7e7828401567996180c4a8ee3025f3bdb10687130b17-000"
"false","2013-11-18T20:53:59","Mined","","BeyCZdCdjAgHCE1AthB4T7iu3H2LUhkBvd","25.0015538","5ac91a50b348473f094d3d1ffd0600a283a524be11f65f5151eb00ba7e78346d-000"
"false","2013-11-18T20:39:38","Mined","","BnWpAZABWhsim5RBkDqeqzj6dCTu8gMrYA","25.00155378","e041f5c1c2d4ef051ae4b497f299e81e2c6f0f9c36ab81605e65b2d151711b3b-000"
"false","2013-11-18T17:19:09","Mined","","BoZyAytjcaaxqBVkQGe7nJebJg2PpUG6uA","25.00091309","b1b452f0ea8052e487a58a47f48508f9f6e74819d00fbe801ea9aeb9f7af5f14-000"
"false","2013-11-18T17:10:25","Mined","","Bf7TQobwB3RcV6Gx4iH5fzbru4U8ZKZYEd","25.00091302","70df69b3bb067c7dcdbf7bc3402ec23829e5dac2e7565ae0c42192c914de4871-000"
"false","2013-11-18T16:07:05","Mined","","Bmi3Lmt1SzB3QkcxurQFkBzVmsVRNT4KEv","25.00121218","ffc85fab9abab1780124f32eba7a2ceef4f6e0566e53d62c59a01453d9d25875-000"
"false","2013-11-18T13:32:07","Mined","","BoPFmb4iMxuRfgEbeRq1ES28uXmNTZ8KWr","25.00102177","83748c616db8b17234f7bef57418420d6c2679ea0397a49fc6035336a353907a-000"
"false","2013-11-18T13:03:29","Mined","","BquJuckpz4uE86yQ1LY5UUmcNQBheCad75","25.00123327","7b78b0a83f83fcb4fc866b4fd0e8a2bb281607b752498d73401f44e7bfb010b5-000"
"true","2013-11-18T11:03:38","Mined","","BiL1sLSSpmGAmSB4qnHAe8kTcwL9K92mMU","25.00130313","759b334f446363642a0f48ae40d2301e3b299c9fde9122cc9dfb4d6917b24ab0-000"
"true","2013-11-18T10:32:46","Mined","","Bpvgo6xuCZpiXTVebL7ooeu3sp2Ee9nC8B","25.00128494","781ac6a39c4e0a6c6ef2acdab4ea4cbf6d77c3bd3a169506fc171324cc28285f-000"
"true","2013-11-18T09:53:20","Mined","","BfVptN1Wa4bLSEQUPT9H5saojLepsPRJn2","25.00128467","583962c1e1e22ab77412bdb70170ae0c745d49c5ee8d2a8c13f06279780fe1c8-000"
"false","2013-11-17T22:38:08","Mined","","BouMKXtXjVzVqQqE4W7NKriVnSesB3tjmc","25.00121731","0402e531ff1f92ee243999f1f7f8b34e0a041febb7ce6d8caa35b1b3263937cd-000"
"false","2013-11-17T22:35:42","Mined","","BagftrS2EwbVyEgojfs4kme1RphNKY7X5Y","25.00121729","a72fc8997d84895766f77732a3be298c812d6cba2ede91851021d0723c4cd392-000"
"true","2013-11-17T18:00:39","Mined","","BbxmnaNRonVfp2eSisT2PYLPQiK5eepU3f","25.00120922","183820e4250d3f8778fc3e9d342cee0213fe73f6c679e65f14a3e8af0f2b9c0d-000"
"true","2013-11-13T06:00:30","Mined","","BiYtP65T6odyWh6G7axchuRi3ivTv8mmS7","25.00088686","016d8c85f6200f8e4d5321313cbc0f8dea0d186aead9856ae1a23532363c9c3b-000"
"true","2013-11-13T04:25:17","Mined","","Bdp8t45z997VTGifjxD5yAjesChGnan4oD","25.00112325","c8d86c08ed8b30d1bfa4bf6ea947756e7e3587bfc099ea32b5be2ec16582a315-000"
"true","2013-11-13T01:26:18","Mined","","BrSnARpTfnJ616eCuRZ6cWq9exjHCP4gAx","25.00120181","a288836bd0b720fdf5e1d8bd377eb90742022fc125e4cec41c52ff5201566206-000"

[wax7]

Thank you.

Getting many "Overflow nonce", but working.

[kramble]

Getting many "Overflow nonce", but working.

You're welcome. Overflow nonce is normal, it just means new work is being sent to the fpga (I think I'll comment that warning out, it was useful in testing but does not belong in the production code, not that this is production quality, just a hack to get it off the ground ATM).

[kramble]

Do others get a lot of orphan blocks?
Both on GPU and now on FPGA I seem to generate as many orphans as good blocks

I get hardly any (touch wood). Though I am in the UK so BlueDragon's servers are local.
My config ...
addnode=162.243.133.80
addnode=162.243.14.130
addnode=146.185.135.24

[wax7]

now i get many "checknone failed" ^_^'

[kramble]

now i get many "checknone failed" ^_^'

Its because the automatic frequency management has reached max speed. They should quiet down after a few minutes (the speed will drop slightly). If they don't then I can do a custom fixed frequency build for you. I run mine at around 200MHz but its had a PSU hack done at some point, so is probably running overvolted.

Actually I think I'll just disable the frequency code and put a couple of fixed frequency variants up on dropbox to choose between. Give me an hour or so (I'll update this post with links).

OK give this one a try https://www.dropbox.com/s/m5q5ag80ulpzf9o/cgminer-311-2013-11-19-180MHz.exe

Just rename it cgminer.exe and pop it into cgminer-3.1.1-blakefpga. Its a fixed 180Mhz build, but I can tweak this up or down as needed (it really ought to be a command line parameter, but that's going to be harder to implement).

If you get a bunch of "checknonce failed" when it starts up, just quit and retry it (it happened to me a couple of times in testing, as I said earlier, I'm not a professional programmer and this is experimental code, "it may eat your hamster..." etc).

[mogrith]

Do others get a lot of orphan blocks?
Both on GPU and now on FPGA I seem to generate as many orphans as good blocks

I get hardly any (touch wood). Though I am in the UK so BlueDragon's servers are local.
My config ...
addnode=162.243.133.80
addnode=162.243.14.130
addnode=146.185.135.24

Since I was seeing this on GPU I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the FPGA

I have 4 nodes listed
addnode=162.243.133.80
addnode=162.243.14.130
addnode=146.185.135.24
addnode=184.171.247.23

first 3 are the same

Would it help at for me to check peers and add nodes
94.79.142.190:8773
122.108.173.195:8773
etc

[wax7]

Thanks, i have 1,488 GH speed
Core 1 184 HW: 0
Core 2 196 HW: 196
Core 3 204 HW: 25
Core 4 200 HW: 77

after 1:30 Hours working.

under BTC it goes up to 224 and HW Error <0.7%

[kramble]

Thanks, i have 1,488 GH speed
Core 1 184 HW: 0
Core 2 196 HW: 196
Core 3 204 HW: 25
Core 4 200 HW: 77

after 1:30 Hours working.

under BTC it goes up to 224 and HW Error <0.7%

Good, its settled down then. I did a fixed 180MHz build (link upthread) that you may want to try out, though you could probably get away with slightly faster (the slow core 1 device may just have been a quirk this time round). BTC is a different algorithm and its a complete coincidence that the blake clock speeds are so similar.

I am working on a faster build, but the xilinx tools are not playing nice (and its takes hours for each attempt). In between these I'm also trying to get a 3 core build to route (it should fit eventually as its only using 77% of the LUT, but its all been negative so far, and the final clock speed will probably be disappointing).

Enjoy

[mogrith]

Every block found since 17:00 18NOV13 has been bad.

Well I exited my blakecoin-qt and restarted with a -regen. all bad blocks no longer show in my transactions. We'll see how it goes.


edit

So far so good 3 blocks found and thet all have many confirmations so I think I'm ok now.

[wax7]

The "checknone failed" errors are going away then the speed stabilized itself so no update needet

But all 10 Blocks i found over night are invalid, and after a restart of blakecoin-QT, CGminer says new difficulty... letz see wats happening now.

btw, Stable speed without HW errors now @ 1,54GH 

[wax7]

count me in  

addnode=94.79.142.190

EDIT:  And again blakecoin-QT fails to update... After restart it works again...

With this Bug i need a restart every Difficulty change!

EDIT2: i have 10 connections... after diff change it goes down to under 4

[BlueDragon747]

count me in  

addnode=94.79.142.190

EDIT:  And again blakecoin-QT fails to update... After restart it works again...

With this Bug i need a restart every Difficulty change!

EDIT2: i have 10 connections... after diff change it goes down to under 4

I think this is due to not enough cpu for wallet and mining on the same machine and it results in losing connections, this happens more with cgminer than reaper or kramble's python miner, it also happened with the cpu miner if you used all the cores on the same machine as the wallet

my advice is to just mine on the weak cpu machine and host the wallet on another machine and just mine to it over your local network and blakecoind is better for using less resources than blakecoin-qt so you could just try using blakecoind and see if that gets same results if it is not possible to host the wallet on another machine

[wax7]

this is due to not enough cpu for wallet and mining on the same machine and it results in losing connections, this happens more with cgminer than reaper or kramble's python miner

my advice is to just mine on the weak cpu machine and host the wallet on another machine and just mine to it over your local network and blakecoind is better for using less resources than blakecoin-qt so you could just try using blakecoind and see if that get same results if it is not possible to host the wallet on another machine

i do not cpu mine, only qt and cgminer on a fpga is running, the cpu (Celeron dualcore 1.2GHz) is idle at 5-7%

[BlueDragon747]

this is due to not enough cpu for wallet and mining on the same machine and it results in losing connections, this happens more with cgminer than reaper or kramble's python miner

my advice is to just mine on the weak cpu machine and host the wallet on another machine and just mine to it over your local network and blakecoind is better for using less resources than blakecoin-qt so you could just try using blakecoind and see if that get same results if it is not possible to host the wallet on another machine

i do not cpu mine, only qt and cgminer on a fpga is running, the cpu (Celeron dualcore 1.2GHz) is idle at 5-7%

any cgminer e.g fpga or opencl seems to stress the wallet if it is running on same machine

have you tried to use blakecoind and does that get same result?

[wax7]

this is due to not enough cpu for wallet and mining on the same machine and it results in losing connections, this happens more with cgminer than reaper or kramble's python miner

my advice is to just mine on the weak cpu machine and host the wallet on another machine and just mine to it over your local network and blakecoind is better for using less resources than blakecoin-qt so you could just try using blakecoind and see if that get same results if it is not possible to host the wallet on another machine

i do not cpu mine, only qt and cgminer on a fpga is running, the cpu (Celeron dualcore 1.2GHz) is idle at 5-7%

any cgminer e.g fpga or opencl seems to stress the wallet if it is running on same machine

have you tried to use blakecoind and does that get same result?

Sorry i am a n00b by mining without Pool, Who do i setup this?
i have a server there i can install the QT client in a VM maschine.. maybe this works better....  :/
config -> listening on= 0.0.0.0 or 255.255.255.255 ?

EDIT: right now the diff goes over 2K